Stephen Jones to lead delegation to Singapore to crack down on online scammers

A trans-Tasman delegation of government ministers and banking and security executives will launch a diplomatic offensive over the rising wave of scam operations in Southeast Asia.

Online scammers from Indonesia to Cambodia are targeting Australians and hiding behind international borders.

A trans-Tasman delegation of government ministers and banking and security executives will launch a diplomatic offensive over the rising wave of scam operations in Southeast Asia targeting Australians and New Zealanders, during a series of meetings in Singapore this week.

Federal Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones will lead the delegation as the government pursues greater partnerships within Asia to help crack down on online scammers responsible for stealing almost $3bn a year.

Joined also by representatives of the New Zealand government, the diplomatic offensive comes as Southeast Asia grows in stature as a global centre of financial scams in an arc from Indonesia to Cambodia and where hubs of sophisticated criminals hide behind international borders and complex, hidden networks to carry out their pilfering from Australian bank accounts.

Mr Jones, who is also the Minister for Financial Services in the Albanese government, is leading the delegation to strengthen collaboration on its recent scammer crackdown across the region. The delegation includes representatives from a host of agencies, companies and industry bodies that have a vested interest in stemming the scams, which are now estimated to cost Australians $2.74bn.

Accompanying the minister will be the National Anti Scam Centre, the Australian Banking Association, the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange, the Customer Owned Banking Associ­ation, and Australian banks.

The group will meet with their Singaporean counterparts and leading business executives working on scam prevention.

Assistant federal treasurer Stephen Jones is leading a delegation to Singapore to forge greater partnerships in cracking down on online scammers. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The focus of the trip will be a mutual fact-sharing exchange between Australia, New Zealand and Singapore on scam trends and insights, Australian anti-scam technology innovation, Singapore’s strategies to disrupt scams from social media and search engines and regulatory and industry approaches to addressing scams, including anti-scams codes.

Mr Jones said the rapid spread and growth in overseas scammers targeting Australians through their mobile phones or online connection was fast becoming a major issue the public was well aware of.

“Anyone with a phone or an internet connection would know scammers are relentless in their pursuit to steal people’s money.

“We want Australians to keep their money safe so we are going after these criminals and smashing their scam activity,” he said.

He said to combat and catch these scammers – many based in countries spanning Asia – it was important Australia strengthened its government-to-government links and share intelligence.

“This is a transnational challenge so we are working closely with our partners in New Zealand and Singapore to take the fight up to the scammers. I look forward to sharing the strategies that are starting to work here in Australia and bring back new insights to continue our anti-scam plan.”

Online scams globally, ranging from theft from merchants to romance scams and fraudulent investment schemes peddled on social media platforms, are believed to rake in trillions of dollars a year and due to the cross-border nature now demand co-operation between governments.

The Jones delegation to Singapore comes after the assistant treasurer attended the Global Fraud Summit in London in March this year where ministers from 11 countries committed their governments to collaborate on anti-scam work to grow our capabilities.